Krav Maga Keep ReadingBy Moshe Katz

May 2010

The Talmud is one of the pillars of Judaism. Comprising thirty six volumes
written between the years 200 and 500, it is a mixture of medieval Hebrew,
Aramaic, and other languages. There are no paragraphs, no commas or periods. In
other words, it is one of the most difficult texts to study and even learned
Jews will break their teeth on it for most of their lives.

Sometimes we get stuck on a difficult passage and the text does not seem to
make sense. You can read it again and again, read the commentary, and still,
nothing but frustration. You feel deadlocked. I recall one such incident. I
asked the rabbi for help. He said, "Keep reading.", "But I don't
understand this section, how can I proceed" I protested. He looked at me
again and said, "Keep reading and the answer will appear."

What he was saying in actuality was this; you cannot get the answer now, you
have to keep reading. If you read another paragraph or two the answer will be
clear, the answer will reveal itself. The answer cannot be understood at this
point; only by reading further will it make sense. No matter how hard you try
you cannot get the answer by only looking at this small section, this is not
the whole picture.

Now the Krav Maga analogy; often beginning students will question
everything. They will not let me teach because they are so busy questioning
everything. They have not "read further", i.e. they do not have much
experience in this field of study. Things that do not make sense to them now
will make sense later on if they just "read further", i.e. follow the
training.

In Krav Maga we believe in questioning techniques, but to know how to ask a
question takes some training. At the first stages of training we must follow
the example of Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid, "I teach, you
learn, no questions."

Learn the technique, practice it a few hundred times, (that's right), give
the technique a chance. You have to be able to see the big picture. When you
first do a technique it might make no sense to you, you cannot imagine how this
will work in real life, but once you learn the full technique, in conjunction
with other techniques, and with full contact high speed drills, you will see it
in an entirely different light.

Krav Maga is based on aggressiveness; it is based on the adrenaline you will
feel in a real life situation. The first time you try the technique, learning
it in slow motion, the full effectiveness of the technique might not yet be
evident. It is at that point that you must remind yourself, to "read
further", give it time and trust your instructor. He has been through this
before and knows what he is doing. Later on you can challenge him, question
him, and fully examine the technique to see how it works for you, but for now,
read on, …